THE VOICE OF CONDOMINIUM NATIONAL EDITION … VOICE OF CONDOMINIUM ... Larry Holmes, RCM, ACCI, CIM,...

T H E V O I C E O F C O N D O M I N I U M

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE/INSTITUT CANADIEN DES CONDOMINIUMS

N AT I O N A L E D I T I O N / S U M M E R 2 0 0 8

review

VANCOUVERHosts CCI National

Semi-Annual Meeting

VANCOUVER

3 Message from the President

4 Vancouver Hosts CCI National Semi-Annual Meeting

5 Employment Contracts - Employees:

7 VOLUNTEERS

How To Attract Them And How To Keep Them

1 4 Condo Cases across Canada

18 Chapter Chatter

inside this issue

2007/2008 Board of Directors

ChairmanCharlie L. Oliver, B.Comm., CCIMMartek Morgan Finch Inc., St. John’s, NL

PresidentJamie A. Bleay, LL.B.Access Law Group, Vancouver, BC

Vice-PresidentJanice Pynn, RCM, ARP, ACCI, FCCISimerra Property Management Inc., Toronto, ON

SecretaryJim MacKenzie, MBA, DAA, FCIP (Hons)Dusyk & Barlow Insurance Brokers Ltd, Regina SK

TreasurerPeter K. Harris, CA, ACCI, FCCIHarris & Chong, LLP, Toronto, ON

BOARD OF DIRECTORSMary Barber-Villeneuve, B.A., CCI (Hon’s)Ottawa, ON

Patrick I. Cassidy, Q.C., LL.B., M.T.S., ACCI, FCCICassidy, Nearing, Berryman, Halifax, NS

Gina Cody, M.Eng., Ph.D., P.Eng., ACCI, FCCI Construction Control, Woodbridge, ON

Kim Coulter, B.Tech. (Arch.Sc.), ACCI, FCCICoulter Building Consultants Ltd, Burlington, ON

Ronald Danks, B.A., LL.B., ACCI, FCCI Simpson, Wigle LLP, Hamilton, ON

Patricia (Patsy) Ernst, B.A., CCI (Hon’s)Halifax, NS

Michele Farley, CCI (Hon’s)FCS Fire Consulting Services Ltd., Innisfil, ON

Doug ForbesThompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP, Winnipeg, MB

Rob Giesbrecht, LL.B., ACCI, FCCIPITBLADO LLP, Winnipeg, MB

Larry Holmes, RCM, ACCI, CIM, ARM, FCCILarlyn Property Management Ltd., London, ON

Denise Lash, B.Sc, LL.B., ACCI, FCCIHeenan Blaikie, Toronto, ON

Peter Leong, P.Eng., ACCI, FCCIGENIVAR Consultants Ltd, Markham, ON

Paul MullerKamlodge Services Ltd, Thunder Bay, ON

John D. Peart, LL.B., CFP, ACCI, FCCINelligan O’Brien Payne LLP, Ottawa, ON

Geoffrey Penney, B.A., LL.BWhite, Ottenheimer & Baker, St. John’s, NL

Donald J. Peter, CIM, P.Mgr., CMMDonald J. Peter & Associates Inc., London, ON

Helena SmithMayfield Management Group Ltd, Edmonton, AB

Douglas G. SteenSteen Property Management Inc., Thunder Bay, ON

Chetan Thakore, B.A., B.Comm.Suncorp Valuations Ltd, Saskatoon, SK

Ben Van De Walle, B.A.Van De Walle & Associates, Morinville, AB

NATIONAL OFFICEExecutive DirectorF. Diane Gaunt

Administrator:Alison Nash

2175 Sheppard Ave. E., Ste. 310, Toronto, ON M2J 1W8

© Canadian Condominium Institute, 20012175 Sheppard Avenue East, Suite 310, Toronto, ON M2J 1W8 [email protected]

* CCI is a government registered trademark

review

Front cover photograph: Courtesy of Bill Thompson, RCM, ACCI

C C I R E V I E W | S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 | 3

As we reach the half-way point of CCI’s25th anniversary, I recently took thetime to flip through the history of CCI prepared by Deborah Howes and distributed at the 2007 CCI awardsdinner held last November. I was struckby the number of individuals who havedevoted many years to the CCI cause.

Several of the individuals have been members of theNational CCI board for more than 15 years! The historycontained stories about the development of CCI and itsgrowth, chapter by chapter, across the Country. The history also identified many of the initiatives undertaken by CCI over the past 25 years. (CCI history may be foundon the CCI-N website: www.cci.ca/ABOUT/history.asp)

Why am I reminiscing about CCI’s past? It is because CCIhas a history that we can all learn from as we tackle newchallenges facing CCI. Twenty-five years ago we did nothave a website; today we do! Twenty-five years ago agroup of individuals had a dream about being the “Voiceof Condominium” in their community; today we are the“Voice of Condominium” across Canada! While all of usare proud of the history and of the many accomplishmentsthat have taken place over the years, we must not losesight of what must be accomplished in the coming yearsas more and more families turn to condominium living and encounter thechallenges that come with that lifestyle. CCI must continueto be in the forefront of education and knowledge as moreand more Canadians adopt a new way of life. Through

our committees, our boards and our chapters, we must continue to do our utmost to serve our constituents.

As you know, CCI National is in the process of finalizing anew governance model. The new model will tweak themanner in which CCI National operates but will still allowfor chapter representation, via a National Council, to theNational Board. The model will be different and a changefrom what we are used to having. However, as Shrek said,“Change is good donkey”. CCI National hopes to be ableto present the new model for adoption at the November2008 Annual General Meeting. We will do our utmost tokeep you informed as we put the finishing touches on thisinitiative.

As summer approaches I am sure that all of us are lookingforward to a well-deserved summer vacation! My hope isthat we will all head into the fall invigorated and ready totackle the many new challenges we face, includingincreasing our level of branding in our chapters, increas-ing the level of awareness of who we are to our Municipal,Provincial and Federal government representatives andputting the finishing touches on the upcoming jointCCI/ACMO conference.

On a personal note, I would like to thank my fellow boardmembers for their support and encouragement to me, inmy role as President of CCI, and to CCI Vancouver. I haveno doubt that there will be a flurry of activity as we move toward our annual meetings in November but I lookforward to the challenge and look forward to seeing all ofyou in November.

BY JAM I E B LEAY, C C I NATI O NAL P R E S I D E NT

Message from the President

CCI-NationalE-mail: [email protected]: www.cci.ca

CCI-Vancouver Email: [email protected]: www.cci.ca/Vancouver

CCI-North Alberta ChapterEmail: [email protected]: www.cci-north.ab.ca

CCI-South Alberta ChapterEmail: [email protected]: www.cci-south.ab.ca

CI-North SaskatchewanEmail: [email protected]: www.nscci.ca

CCI-South SaskatchewanEmail: [email protected]: www.cci.ca/ssc

CCI-ManitobaEmail: [email protected]: www.cci.ca/Manitoba

CCI-Toronto & AreaEmail: [email protected]: www.ccitoronto.org

CCI-Huronia Email: [email protected]: www.cci.ca/Huronia

CCI-London & AreaEmail: [email protected]: www.cci-sw.on.ca

CCI-OttawaEmail: [email protected]: www.cci.ca/ottawa

CCI-Golden HorseshoeEmail: [email protected]: www.ghccci.org

CCI-Windsor-Essex CountyEmail: [email protected]: www.cci.ca/Windsor

CCI-Northwestern OntarioEmail: [email protected]: www.cci.ca/NWOntario

CCI-Nova ScotiaEmail: [email protected]: www.ccinovascotia.ca

CCI-Newfoundland & LabradorEmail: [email protected]

CCI National Chapter Contacts

4 | S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 | C C I R E V I E W

BY J I M MAC K E N Z I E , M BA, DAA, FC I P (H O N S)

C C I NATI O NAL S E C R ETARY

Vancouver is everything you hear it is.The sea, the mountains, a wonderful cli-mate… and your national board waslucky enough to be here for the 2008semi-annual meetings.

The National Board meets four times peryear, twice by telephone and twice in per-son. In late October or early Novemberwe meet in Toronto in conjunction withthe annual joint conference held by CCIToronto and the Association of Condo-minium Managers of Ontario (ACMO).(Incidentally, if you have never been, dogo – it’s a fantastic conference.) In thespring, the meetings are held by one ofour chapters outside Toronto. In 2007, mychapter, South Saskatchewan, hostedthe conference and meetings in Regina.

This year, Vancouver Chapter hosted themeetings. I can tell you from my person-al experience what a big job it is. Onbehalf of the entire board, I would like tothank and congratulate the entireVancouver Chapter Board and all the vol-unteers for doing such a fantastic job oforganizing things.

The 2009 spring meeting will be inHamilton, Ontario. The Golden Horse-shoe Chapter has quite an act to follow,but I have already heard some of theevents being planned and know it isgoing to be a great event.

Our meetings were very productive. Theboard approved in principle a proposal tomodify the structure of the nationalboard. (Our chair, Charlie Oliver, has writ-ten on this matter in this newsletter in thepast.) Subject to formal ratification at theannual general meeting this fall, theboard intends to move day-to-day deci-sion making to a larger executive, repre-senting all regions of Canada. The cur-rent board, 24 large, will move to an over-seeing role. The Constitution Committeeis currently examining the logistics of thischange and authoring proposed changesto the bylaws of CCI to permit thechange.

We also had a lengthy discussion withACMO about property manager educa-tion. We agree with ACMO that this is avery laudable goal and are investigatingways that we can assist with this.

On the Saturday, Vancouver Chapterheld a seminar. Nearly a hundred condo-minium unit owners, realtors and otherinterested professionals attended. Themorning began with Kevin Grasty andMike Van Dusen of Halsall AssociatesLtd. discussing building envelope repairsand building maintenance. This was fol-lowed by a discussion on condominiumsand insurance, presented by PaulDuchaine of BFL Canada InsuranceServices and by this writer. After a deli-cious lunch, the seminar concluded withan entertaining legal panel consisting ofRon Danks of Hamilton, ON, RobGiesbrecht of Winnipeg, MB, GeoffPenney of St. John’s, NL, Shawn Smithof Vancouver, BC and Don Kramer ofEdmonton, AB.

Personally speaking, I had a wonderfultime and know that the same is true forthe rest of the board. Thank you again toVancouver Chapter, and to CCI Nationaland Taylor Enterprises, our managementorganization, for helping everything go sosmoothly.

I look forward to seeing you in Markham,Ontario at our meetings at the end ofOctober!

Vancouver Hosts CCI National Semi-Annual Meeting


Employment Contracts -Employees

S U B M ITTE D BY R O N DAN KS, B .A . (H O N S. ) , LLB, AC C I FC C I

If your corporation employs a superin-tendent, concierge, cleaning staff orother person as a direct employee, thenyou need to be aware of the following:

1. Every employee should be employedpursuant to a written employmentcontract. The employment contractshould include a general jobdescription that clearly sets out theduties that the employee is expect-ed to fulfill.

2. There is no such thing as a “cou-ples” employment contract. Oftensuperintendent couples are retainedwith one being the primary serviceprovider and the other the back up.We have seen a number of contractswhich indicate that if one is fired for

ion as to enable you to let both goalbeit with one or the other perhapsreceiving more payment in lieu ofnotice if necessary.

3. If you learn that an employee isharassing other employees, you mustdeal with it immediately, otherwiseyou expose the corporation tocharges of permitting sexual or otherforms of harassment.

cause, the other is automatically letgo as well. This could be considereda violation of the provincial HumanRights Code if the couple are consid-ered to be spouses whether throughmarriage or common law, and you letone go for no reason other than theother had failed to live up to their jobexpectations. In that case, you shouldhave two employment contractswhich can be drafted in such a fash-

There is no such thing as a “couples” employment contract. Often superintendent

couples are retained with one being the primaryservice provider and the other the back up.


4. Similarly, if you learn that your employ-ees are being harassed by residents,steps should be taken to eliminate it.

5. Do not layer on additional duties to anemployee who is not qualified to han-dle them. In some cases, that could beconstrued as a form of constructivedismissal and, more importantly, youmay be exposing them to hazardoussituations that they are not equippedto deal with.

6. If you learn of a hazardous situationaffecting the common elements, youhave a duty to advise the employeesof the corporation to ensure that theydo not inadvertently expose them-selves to that danger. Failure to do socould render you criminally liable ifthey are injured as a result of your fail-ure to warn them of the danger.

7. Employees, especially superinten-dents should be required to maintaindaily log books indicating what workthey undertook that day, what testswere completed and what inspectionswere made and at what times. This isespecially important during majorsnow storms. The difference betweenbeing found liable for a slip and fall asa result of a major snow storm can verywell turn on the contents of such logbooks.

8. Make sure your employees have ade-quate training for the tasks that theyare asked to deal with. As an example,if your superintendent is responsiblefor inspecting and/or testing the fire

alarm system for the building on a reg-ular basis; ensure that he or sheknows how to do the inspection prop-erly.

9. As an employer, you are subject toemployment legislation, as well as alllegislation requiring remittances for

income tax, Canada pension andWorker’s Compensation. Directors ofcondominium corporations could beheld personally liable for such remit-tances if it is discovered that they arenot being withheld. Paying an employ-ee “under the table” is never a goodidea.

10. Employees should be discouragedfrom “freelancing” their services toowners in the building. This almostalways gives rise to conflicts withrespect to employees undertakingwork for residents during normalworking hours. A good employmentcontract can deal with that issue.

11. Don’t reward incompetence. If youhave had reason to discipline or cen-

sure an employee who is provingdifficult to deal with, think twiceabout that Christmas bonus or raise.It is difficult to fire an employee forcause when you have been reward-ing them through raises and/orbonuses. If you do censure anemployee, make sure you do so in

writing and a copy of that correspon-dence or memorandum included inthe employment file for future refer-ence.

12. Condominium unit owners are enti-tled to review any employmentcontract the corporation may enterinto as a record of the corporation.However, the Condominium Act,1998, prohibits owners from review-ing the contents of employee files.As a result, you should make surethat such files are maintained on aconfidential basis and are not avail-able to the average owner to review.

13. And finally, if you are considering let-ting an employee go, or significantlychanging the number of hours perweek that they will work, consult withyour corporation’s solicitor first todetermine what obligations you mayhave to that employee in respect oftermination. Reducing or increasingthe number of hours that an employ-ee is expected to work can also beconstrued as constructive dismissalif done unilaterally.

Ron Danks, B.A. (Hons.), LLB, ACCIFCCI, is a partner in the business lawfirm of Simpson Wigle LLP, and prac-tices solely in the area of condominiumlaw and administration.

Condominium unit owners are entitled to reviewany employment contract the corporation may

enter into as a record of the corporation.


The Canadian Condominium Institute,(“CCI”) is a not for profit organizationoperated at both national and chapter lev-els by volunteers. While National andsome chapters have paid administrators,by and large, the bulk of the work involvedin running CCI is conducted by volun-teers. As such, attracting new volunteersto our organization is essential to its veryexistence. Motivating existing volunteersto continue in their efforts while avoidingvolunteer “burn out” is equally important.

Where Do Our Volunteers Come FromAccording to the National Survey ofGiving, Volunteering and Participating,(“NSGVP”), conducted in 2000, it was

determined that on average, almost 60%of all Canadians will volunteer their timeand services to some extent every year. InOntario alone, volunteers contribute theequivalent of over 200,000 full-time jobsto the economy, worth an estimated sixbillion dollars to the province’s economy.On a nationwide basis, more than 6.5 million Canadians volunteer over1,000,000,000 hours of their time tocharitable and voluntary organizationsaccording to the report. So, where are allthese people and how do we get theminvolved with CCI?

A “typical” volunteer is female, betweenthe age of 35 and 54 years old, is mar-ried, has some post-secondary educa-

tion, and is employed, according to the2000 NSGVP survey. However, this doesnot mean such a person would be thebest volunteer. As an example, of thosepersons that are 65 years of age andolder, which is the group that are the leastlikely to volunteer, those who do, volun-teer the most time of any other age group,(in excess of 180 hours a year on aver-age). What an organization does alsoimpacts on the type of person who mightbe attracted to volunteering. Sportingorganizations generally attract more menthan women, youth groups such asGuides and Scouts often attract youngervolunteers, (primarily because their chil-dren may be involved in the organization),and seniors organizations tend to attractmore older volunteers than young ones.

Who may be attracted to volunteerfor a CCI chapter Board orCommittee?

Condominium Directors:CCI’s primary purpose is to provide education and support to those involvedin the condominium community acrossCanada. We say that we are the “voice ofcondominium”. Who are we talking to? Byfar, our membership is made up of con-dominium and strata corporations. Thosecorporations are managed by a Board ofDirectors. Therefore it is safe to say thatour primary “marketplace” are directorswho themselves are already volunteeringto serve their own community. Accordingto the 2000 NSGVP study, 95% of thosewho volunteer do so because theybelieve in the case that is supported bythe organization. The next two largestgroups polled indicated that they weremotivated to join the organization to usetheir skills and experience to give some-thing back to the cause or because theywere personally effected by the cause insome fashion.

VOLUNTEERSHow To Attract Them And How To Keep Them

BY R O NALD S. DAN KS, B .A . (H O N S) , L .L .B . , AC C I , FC C I


Drawing volunteers from condominiumBoard of Directors is an obvious marketto explore and its highly recommended

that every chapter maintain some repre-sentation on their local chapter Board ofDirectors by directors drawn from theircondominium members.

Since most people join an organizationbecause they believe in the cause, it is,therefore, key for chapters to promoteCCI activities whenever you can. Repeatthe message over and over again that it isimportant for condominium corporationsand their Board of Directors to be a mem-ber of CCI. For most chapters, a newslet-ter is the most direct method of commu-nicating and promoting CCI to Boardmembers. Always make sure that yournewsletter contains at least one article

that talks about what CCI is doing forcondominium directors and homeowners.It doesn’t have to be a long article, itmight even simply be a brief bulletin

explaining how local chapter Board mem-bers have had discussions with the mayorabout some issue that may ultimately ben-efit the condominium corporations andtheir homeowners.

If you have just run a seminar or a direc-tor’s educational course, brag about yourattendance in your next newsletter. Takequotes about how beneficial the coursewas from participants and publish them,(with their consent). If you are holding aseminar or a directors’ course, open thesession with a brief speech promotingCCI and use the opportunity, if you arelooking for volunteers, to encouragethose in attendance to help out in some

fashion. Ask those who are interested tospeak to representatives from the chapterBoard during the coffee break, or lunchbreak or immediately after the seminarbefore they leave. Those who take thetime to attend such a course have alreadyshown you that they are interested inwhat CCI is doing so they are prime candidates.

An existing condominium director mayalready feel that they are doing more thantheir fair share by volunteering for theirown corporation. As such, think about tar-geting directors who have decided not torun for the condominium Board again.How can you find these people?Condominium property managers wouldbe an obvious source. If you are lookingfor representation from condominiumBoards, talk to your local condominiumproperty managers, preferably, your ownchapter members or fellow directors, (seenotes below). Ask them if they know ofsomeone that they think would be willingto volunteer.

Professionals:CCI’s next largest membership area arethe professionals who are in some fashioninvolved with the condominium communi-ty. These include property managers,engineers, lawyers, accountants, insur-ance brokers and real estate agents.

Professionals may initially see CCI as anopportunity to promote their own busi-ness although the NSGVP 2000 studyindicates that fewer than 23% of volun-teers listed this as their main motivationfor joining a charitable or not-for-profitorganization. The author’s personalobservations from being on a chapterBoard and the national Board for far toolong are that those who join the chapterBoards purely for business promotion, donot last long and generally lag behind theother Board members in the amount oftime and effort they will donate.

In many ways, professional members areeasier to attract as volunteers then ascondominium directors. Target profes-sionals who are already actively involvedin the condominium community. Let themknow the benefits of CCI membership,including:

CCI’s next largest membership area are the professionals who are in some fashion involved

with the condominium community.


• The ability to attract new clients• The ability to use their skill and

experience• Marketing opportunities through

advertising in chapter newsletters and other events

• Raising their profile in the condomini-um community, and, most importantly,

• Giving back to the community fromwhich they make a living.

In targeting professionals, try to attractas broad a range of professional skills asyou possibly can. The skills that profes-sional members bring to the table areone of the most important resources fora CCI chapter for articles, educationalevents and knowledge of all aspects ofcondominium. Encourage professionalmembers to get others in their firm orbusiness involved. The lawyer volunteer-ing on your Board may not have the timeto personally write on article for your nextnewsletter, but she may have a juniorlawyer that does. This not only decreas-es the burden on your existing volunteer,but also promotes the possibility of thatjunior lawyer one day sitting on yourBoard. Make sure your professionals areactually promoting CCI and your chapterto their business contacts and to theirclients. (Tip: make sure your professionalmembers get extra copies of yournewsletters to leave in their front lobbyand to send to new clients.)

Service Providers:A third potential source of volunteers arethe owners/operators of companies thatprovide services to condominiums.

Typically, we find that very few serviceproviders actually end up sitting on achapter Board, but they are also oftenquite happy to volunteer for specific mat-ters such as writing an article, leading aseminar, or perhaps, sponsoring a semi-nar or other event.

Ask Them:Don’t be afraid to ask someone specifi-cally if they would like to volunteer, theworst they can do is say no. Don’tassume that that person or others knowthat you are actively looking for volun-teers for your chapter Board or otherevents. Place an advertisement in yourchapter newsletter letting people knowthat there are volunteer positions avail-able whether it’s sitting on the Board, acommittee, or helping out with a specialevent.

Job Description:One of the first things that a prospectivevolunteer will ask is what do I have todo? You should be prepared to provideyour volunteers with a job description.Take some time to work out a jobdescription for the volunteer positions

that you are looking to fill. Such descrip-tions should contain:

• The name of the assignment or task to be undertaken

• The purpose of the assignment• What work has to be done• An estimate of the time commitment• Are there any skill requirements

necessary• Is there training or development

support that can be given• If applicable, how is that person or

persons to be supervised, that is, who do they report to

• Describe what authority they have (or don’t have) and outline the decision making structure

• Whether that person can be givenassistance by others, and

• If it is a specific task such as a seminar or a course, due dates andtimelines for completion.

You should also do the same kind ofexercise for your Board members andofficers. What is it that you expect thePresident or Chair of your chapter Boardto do? Similarly, what does your treasur-er, recording secretary, vice-presidents,newsletter editor and other committee

Don’t assume that that person or others know that you are actively

looking for volunteers for your chapter Board or other events.

1 0 | S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 | C C I R E V I E W

leaders do. Don’t just assume you knowwhat they do, ask your directors whatthey are doing for the chapter, and howmuch time are they spending doing it.This helps everyone to understand eachother’s role, cuts down on duplication,identifies people who may be able totake on additional tasks, or, converselyidentifies those who are doing too muchand are heading for Director burnout.

When it comes time for your chapterAnnual General Meeting at which direc-tors are to be elected, include a brief jobdescription about just what a CCI direc-tor does with the notice for the meeting.Try not to make the job descriptionssound too onerous, and remember tomention a few of the benefits such asnetworking with Board members as wellas members from other chapters acrossthe country, contributing to the condo-minium community, and having access toa wealth of talent.

Old Boys:Some members may get the impressionthat your chapter Board of Directors is aclosed shop which membership is byinvitation only. Dispel that myth at everyopportunity. While you shouldn’t be shyin approaching specific individuals whoyou think may benefit the chapter, alwaysrun an open election at your AGM. Ifsomeone puts forth their name as a can-

didate for a position on the Board and isnot successful, consider asking that indi-vidual if they would like to volunteer insome other fashion. Keep them involvedand maybe next year or the year after,you will find yourself sitting beside themat the boardroom table.

If you have more volunteers than youhave positions on the Board or commit-tees, consider whether its time toincrease the number of Board members,(this may require having your chapter By-Laws amended), or whether you could

be delegating more work away fromdirectors and on to committees. As anexample, the editor of your newslettermay enjoy putting it together, but mayabsolutely hate looking for advertisers.So strike a newsletter committee and askfor a couple of volunteers to help the edi-tor out.

Now You’ve Got Them, How Do YouGet Them To Work?Motivating volunteers is not as difficult as you may think. After all, if they havealready volunteered to be on your chap-ter Board or a committee, they obvious-ly have an interest in helping out. Thekey is getting them moving and keepingthem moving in the right direction. Thefollowing are some simple but effectivemethods.

Training:One or two members of your chaptershould meet with a person outside ofyour boardroom to bring them up to dateon what it is that the chapter is doing.Explain to the new volunteers what it isthey are going to be asked to do, (don’tforget the job description noted above).Let them know about any deadlines thatmay have some bearing on their jobdescription, (such as a deadline for sub-mitting the chapter’s report to the nation-al board). Give them the dates and timesof all of your planned Board meetings,seminars, courses or other events.Finally, ask them if they have any ques-tions.

Communicate:Don’t let your volunteers lose track oftime. It should be within someone’s jobdescription on your Board to communi-cate regularly with other directors andcommittees to see how they are doing. Ifthey are struggling, find out why and getthem help if possible. Use the telephone,and email to keep dialogue going. Makesure that agendas for Board meetingsare issued in a timely fashion and attachan “action list” listing tasks to be accom-plished, who is doing it and when its sup-posed to be done.

Thank Them:Make sure that your volunteers know

Motivating volunteers is not as difficult as you may think.

C C I R E V I E W | S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 | 1 1

how much their efforts are appreciated.At your Board meetings, your Presidentor Chair should recognize each volunteerfor their achievements. Make sure youcommunicate this to your membershipthrough your newsletter and at yourAGM. Don’t hesitate to tell your mem-bers what a great job Bill or Jane didputting together the last seminar. Biggerachievements might well deserve moreformal recognition or a gift of apprecia-tion. Consider budgeting a small amountevery year to do this.

Support:Make sure that everyone is getting thesupport they need to accomplish thetask that has been assigned to them. Ifits their first time doing something, havesomeone else who has done it before, sitdown and walk them through it. Developa policy manual for your chapter torecord policy decisions relating to theoperation of your chapter, (e.g. that chap-ter directors cannot commit the corpora-tion financially without the authority of amajority of the Board of Directors).Include checklists in the policy manualfor routine events such as all of the stepsnecessary to put on the AGM or host aseminar. You will find that these will buildup over time and provide a very valuableresource for future directors making itmuch easier for volunteers to adjust intotheir new position on your Board.

Never Assume Everything Is Okay:Just because one of your volunteers has-n’t complained that they have, for thethird year in a row, been the only onewho stuffs the envelopes with the noticefor your AGM doesn’t mean they are stillhappy doing it. Routine or mundanetasks should be divided equally amongstall of your Board and should be done ingroups if at all possible.

Administrative Support:Consider whether your chapter canafford a part time or full time administra-tor to take over the majority of the routinetasks that your directors now do. Gettingrid of the small stuff allows your directorsto concentrate on the bigger issues andgives them more time to deal with them.

Before hiring an administrator, develop ajob description and make sure you

understand all the ramifications of hiringsomeone, either as a direct employee ofthe chapter or as a contractor. This iswhere the advice of some of your profes-sionals, like your lawyers and accoun-tants, may come in handy.

Reward:Don’t be afraid to spend a little money onyourselves. Clearly people don’t volun-teer for non-profit or charitable organiza-tions because of the high pay. This does-n’t mean that they should be out of pock-et because of their volunteer work.Chapters should budget carefully so thatthey can compensate directors for anyout of pocket expenses they may incur.This might include the costs of attendingeducational events such as the annualnational conference held in Toronto, orthe semi-annual spring national Boardmeetings and associated conferences

held within other chapters throughout thecountry. If one or more of your directorsvolunteer to conduct a seminar in anothercity or town in order to promote CCIand/or your chapter, make sure they arecompensated for any travelling expenses.

Having said this, make sure all yourchapter Board members are aware ofyour compensation policies and havethem use an expense form with appropri-ate receipts whenever compensation isrequired. There is nothing wrong withgiving your directors a few perks inrecognition of their contributions. Thismight include an annual barbeque or din-ner at the chapter’s expense just for thedirectors and their spouses, or a nicethank you gift for an out going director orcommittee volunteer. However, remem-ber, you cannot buy recognition from acatalogue. Its still essential that your vol-

Don’t be afraid to spend a little money on yourselves. Clearly people don’t volunteer

for non-profit or charitable organizations because of the high pay.


unteers are personally and publiclythanked for their contributions.

Encourage the President or chair of eachchapter Board to personally write a thankyou to the other Board members andpublish it in your newsletter. Similarly, itwould be nice if the other Board mem-bers thank the President. These thankyou notes not only recognize your exist-ing volunteers, but let potential new vol-unteers know their services would bewelcome and appreciated. Considerpublishing them not only in your newslet-ter, but also on your website.

Shake Things Up Once In A While:Every once in a while, talk amongst your-selves at the boardroom table and withyour committees to make sure that every-one is happy with the position they cur-rently hold. Your President may haveserved wonderfully for a number of years,but because of business or family rea-sons, may find it’s a struggle to continueto fulfill her duties, but may be reluctantto admit this. Some chapters have devel-oped policies creating a rotation systemamongst the officers. For example,requiring that when a secretary is

appointed, they will then become theVice-President and then the Presidentassuming they remain members. On theother hand, if things are working well,don’t force someone to take a job thatthey don’t really want.

Non-Performance:Despite best intention and best efforts,you may still find that you have directorswho are struggling. Sometimes this maybe simply due to the fact that they are notsure of what it is that is expected ofthem, which is why it is so important tomaintain policy manuals and create jobdescriptions.

Sometimes an individual may jump intonew tasks with a great deal of heart, onlyto become disillusioned when it provesto be too difficult or too large a task forthem to accomplish on their own. This iswhy continued communication betweenthe Board members is important. Don’tbe shy about asking directors if theyneed help.

Make sure that you pick the right peoplefor the right job. A person who is uncom-

fortable with public speaking, may notwant to speak at a course or other eventbut might be quite happy to help withregistration.

If you have a member who constantlymisses meetings, this can become anirritant to other more active volunteers onyour Board. Delegate someone to talk tothe person to find out what it is that iscausing the absenteeism. There may bea reasonable explanation, and it may beshort lived. On the other hand, if its clearthat that person cannot pull their weight,it may be in the best interests of thechapter to ask them to step aside.

Sometimes, people do just burn out. Theburnout may not necessarily arise justfrom their activities with your chapter, butcould be the result of other issues relat-ing to business, family, or other volunteercommitments. Signs of burn out include:

• Frequent absenteeism and being consistently late

• Failure to perform their duties or tasks

• Frequent complaining about health or fatigue, bad attitude

• Failure to participate in discussions

• Easily irritated by minor issues• Critical of other members’

performances.

If you see signs of burn out in one of yourdirectors, you may be able to avoid it ifyou act promptly, but sometimes, its justtime to go. Delegate one or two of yourofficers to speak to the person in ques-tion privately and let them know that youreally appreciate everything that theyhave done. Ask them if it wouldn’t be agood idea to take a rest from the chapterfor awhile. Let them decide how theywould like to handle their departure. If,for example, the director is up for elec-tion in three or four months, they maysimply decide not to attend any furtherBoard meetings and not run for re-elec-tion. Others may simply submit their let-ter of resignation.

Chapters might want to consider devel-


oping By-Laws to deal with the removalof a Board member, such as a require-ment that they are deemed to haveresigned from the Board if they missmore than half of the regularly scheduledBoard meetings in any fiscal year, or two-thirds of the Board have passed aResolution requiring their resignation.Regardless of how the non-performingDirector is removed, make a point ofthanking them personally and publicly fortheir services. The last thing you want todo is be critical of a volunteer as thattends to scare aware other volunteers.

Make It Personal:Most volunteers want to support a causeto which they feel a personal attachment.Encourage participation in social eventshosted by the chapter by all of your vol-unteers. Give them the opportunity to dowhat they want to do best. As an exam-ple, one of the past Directors in theGolden Horseshoe Chapter made it hismission to personally visit the Board ofDirectors of every new condominium corporation that became a member ofGHC-CCI in the city in which he lived.

Make It Meaningful:The tasks you assign to your Directorsshould be well structured and well-man-aged. Most volunteers join because theywant to help but can become frustratedand leave if they feel that they are wast-ing their time.

Keep It Light:You are not running a major conglomer-ate. Your Board meetings should bepleasant, friendly, and respectful. Therewill always be arguments but there is noreason for them to be nasty, (see notesabove regarding signs of burn out).Whoever you choose to chair your Boardmeetings should have some “people”skills.

Committees:Recruiting volunteers to man committeescan be done in much the same way aswe do for volunteers on your chapterBoard. Committees can be very benefi-cial to a chapter as long as you remem-ber not to let the tail wag the dog. Thecommittee should be structured such

that at least one member is a Boardmember so that you can keep track ofwhat the committee is accomplishing.That Board member does not necessari-ly have to chair the committee, butshould be prepared to attend all of itsmeetings. Just like a director’s jobdescription, the Board should give a jobdescription to the committee and set theboundaries within which it must operate.If the chair of the committee is not one ofyour Board members, make sure that thechair is invited to your Board meetings tomake reports and that if they cannotattend, they are to provide a writtenreport in advance of the meeting.Encourage participation on the commit-tee by persons other than your Boardmembers.

Some committees may be permanentsuch as your newsletter or educationcommittee, while others may be createdfor specific tasks such as a major con-ference or other special event. Makesure you thank all of your committeemembers and encourage them to volun-teer again. Keep careful track of who ison the committee with their names,addresses and telephone numbers.Make sure that if you create a committeewhich includes non-Board members thatyou pass a Resolution recognizing thosecommittee members as special officersof the chapter. In that way, you will shel-ter them under CCI’s directors and offi-cers’ liability insurance should somethingunfortunate occur.

Insurance:On the issue of insurance, all chaptersare covered under the CCI National’sinsurance policy and all CCI chapterBoard of Directors (and officers) are cov-ered under the directors and officers por-tion of the insurance. Make sure newdirectors or potential candidates knowthis. (NOTE: If you are hosting a specialevent involving large groups of people,especially if liquor is to be served, checkwith National as a special events ridermight be necessary, (very inexpensive)).

Conclusion:Millions of Canadians volunteer to pro-vide services to charities and not-for-profit organizations every year. Many of

those millions live in and work with con-dominiums, and so there should be noshortage of talent to choose from. Manyof these are aging baby boomers whoare, or will shortly be retiring and may belooking for meaningful ways to spendtheir retirement. The number of profes-sionals involved with the condominiumcommunity is growing as fast as condo-miniums are. There is a wealth of experi-ence out there, and many of those pro-fessionals are looking for ways to givesomething back to the community thatthey earn their living from. Getting goodvolunteers and keeping them should notbe a difficult task if you follow the simplerules outlined in this paper. Remember,the one cardinal rule of volunteerism isrecognition. You can never thank volun-teers enough.

ResourcesVolunteers: How Community AssociationsThrive, Community Associations Press,Division of Community AssociationsInstitute, (www.caionline.org/bookstore.cfm)

Understanding Canadian Volunteers byNora McClintock, Canadian Centre forPhilanthropy, 2004, (www.givingandvolun-teering.ca)

The Volunteer Spirit in Canada: Motivationsand Barriers, David Lasby, Canadian Centrefor Philanthropy, 2004, (www.givingandvol-unteering.ca)

How Canadians Perceive Volunteer Work,Canadian Press/Leger Marketing,(www.legermarketing.com)

The Benefits of Volunteering National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2000,Canadian Centre for Philanthropy,(www.givingandvolunteering.ca)

Ron Danks, B.A. (Hons.), LLB, ACCI,FCCI, is a partner in the business lawfirm of Simpson Wigle LLP, and prac-tices soley in the area of condominiumlaw and administration.


Condo Casesacross Canada

It is my pleasure to provide these brief summaries of recent

condominium court decisions across Canada. I don’t provide

summaries of every decision rendered. I select a handful of

decisions that I hope readers will find interesting. I hope

readers enjoy this regular column of the CCI Review.

I S S U E N O . 2 2

ALBERTA CASEThe Owners: Condominium Plan No. 822 2909 v. Li (Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta)(November 14, 2007)

Owner not responsible fordeductible relating to water escapedamage. However, special condi-tions imposed respecting owner’sselection of tenants.

Damage was caused to a number ofunits and to common property whenwater escaped from a waterline. Thewater line had been punctured by abullet. The water line was located in aunit adjacent to Unit 205. Unit 205 was

owned by the defendant, and occupiedby the defendant’s tenants. The condo-minium corporation believed that thebullet came from Unit 205.

The damage was covered by the cor-poration’s property insurance, sub-ject to a deductible of $5,000. Thecondominium corporation sought torecover the deductible from theowner of Unit 205.

The Court said:“There are several theories advancedas to the source of the bullet thatcaused the damage, but in my opin-ion none is more preferable than theother.”

The Court could not say who was to“blame” for the bullet or the resultingdamage. The Court accordingly saidthat “there would have to be eitherlegislation or condominium by-lawsthat would impose strict liability in cir-cumstances like this” in order to holdthe owner responsible for thedeductible. The Court said that therewas no such legislation or by-law inthis case, and accordingly held thatthe unit owner was not liable for the$5,000 deductible.

In its application, the condominiumcorporation also requested restric-tions or conditions upon the owner’sselection of tenants. The Court

THE HOT TOPIC:

ALBERTA COURT ORDERS THAT TENANTS BE SUBJECT TO CONDOMINIUM CORPORATION APPROVAL.

BY J A M E S D AV I D S O N , L L . B . , A C C I , F C C I

A Court in Alberta has imposed special restrictions upon a landlord who has had a history of selecting “bad” tenants. Henceforth, that landlord’s chosen tenants must be approved by the condominium Board.

To my knowledge, this is a first in Canada – but I’m guessing that it may not be the last time we see such an order.

On many occasions, I’ve been asked about the idea of adding such a “tenant screening” provision to a condominium’s Declaration, By-laws or Rules. There is room for debate about the validity of such a provision. But,leaving that issue aside, I’ve also felt that such a provision could be “dangerous” because of the risks of a claim

against the condominium corporation in the event that a tenant is in fact rejected by the Board. [One can imagineclaims for lost rent and perhaps claims of Human Rights violations.] Screening tenants could be a risky business.

But I wonder: Are these risks reduced if the screening is authorized, in relation to a specific landlord, by a Court order?


Toronto Standard CondominiumCorporation No. 1703 v. 1 King West Inc. (Ontario SuperiorCourt of Justice) (April 3, 2008)

Additional discovery and productionrights arise when condominium cor-poration sues on behalf of owners

The condominium corporationasserted a claim on its own behalfand on behalf of the owners, seekingdamages of $20 million for allegeddeficiencies in both the common ele-ments and the individual units. TheCourt said that, in cases where anominal party (in this case the con-dominium corporation) asserts aclaim on behalf of a beneficiary (inthis case the unit owners), the Rulesof Court [Rule 31.03(8)] give the defendants a right to examine the beneficiaries for discovery.Furthermore, the Rules of Courtplace an obligation upon the nominalparty to produce relevant documentswhich are in the possession, controlor power of the beneficiary [even ifthose documents are not in the pos-session, control or power of the nom-inal party].

The Court accordingly ordered thecondominium corporation to produceagreements, completion certificates,and negotiation correspondencefrom each unit owner relating to thealleged deficiencies. The Court saidthat those documents “are relevant,and the request for those documentsis not abusive, onerous, or otherwiseimproper.” The Court did not orderthe condominium corporation to pro-duce various other documentssought in the notice of motion (butsaid that the defendants might havethe right to make a further request forproduction of those other documentsbased upon additional evidence thatmay be revealed during the Courtprocess).

York Region CondominiumCorporation No. 772 v. LombardCanada Ltd. (Ontario Court ofAppeal) (April 14, 2008)

Insurer unsuccessful on appeal

The condominium corporationobtained judgment against a con-tractor for damages resulting from

agreed to grant such an order. TheCourt said:

“I am satisfied from the evidence as awhole that the respondent has notexercised due diligence in his selec-tion of tenants. The incidence ofnotice violations and smoke viola-tions and police intervention withoccupants of the respondent’spremises far exceeds the average ofsuch incidents with other unit hold-ers that are tenant-occupied.”

The Court granted an order, whichincluded the following:

• Tenant applications received by theowner must be forwarded to the con-dominium Board for approval orrejection within the Board’s reason-able discretion;

• The owner must provide copies ofthe condominium’s By-laws to allapproved tenants;

• The owner must immediately evictany tenant upon written request fromthe Board (where the Board con-cludes that there has been a violationof the condominium’s By-laws).

ONTARIO CASESMetropolitan Toronto CondominiumCorporation No. 1143 v. Li Peng(Ontario Superior Court of Justice)(January 22, 2008)

Condominium corporation obligatedto resolve disagreement througharbitration

The condominium corporation com-menced a court application (pur-suant to Section 134 of theCondominium Act, 1998). The cor-poration alleged that the owner andother occupants of the unit had con-ducted themselves in a loud and dis-

turbing manner in contravention ofthe corporation’s Declaration, andhad brought a dog into the buildingin contravention of one of the corpo-ration’s rules. The owner denied thatthere had been any loud or disturbingbehaviour. The owner admitted tohaving a dog in the unit, but statedthat the dog remained in the unit onlyfor a week and was removed imme-diately following the corporation’s ini-tial warning letter.

The key question for the court was asfollows:

Does the dispute between the parties constitute a “disagreement”within the meaning of Section132(4) of the Condominium Act,1998, thus triggering mandatorymediation and arbitration contem-plated by that section?

The Court’s answer was “yes”. TheCourt said that mandatory mediationand arbitration applies to “disagree-ments about the validity, interpreta-tion, application, or non-applicationof the Declaration, By-laws andRules”. The Court said that the issuesraised in this case are “issues involv-ing the interpretation and application of the corporation’sDeclaration and Rules”, and accord-ingly constitute a “disagreement”within the meaning of Section 132(4)of the Act.

The Court also noted that the aboveconclusions appeared to be support-ed by the fact that the corporation’slegal counsel, in its initial letters tothe owner, made reference to media-tion and arbitration. The owner didnot respond to those initial letters,and the Court agreed that mediationaccordingly was “not available”. Butthis did not entitle the corporation tocommence a Court application,because arbitration was neverthelessavailable. The Court noted that thecorporation could pursue arbitrationeven if the owner failed to participatein the arbitration process.

The Court application was accord-ingly dismissed and costs wereawarded to the owner.

The owner must immediately evict anytenant upon written

request from the Board


the contractor’s defective work.Lombard was the contractor’s insur-er, under a comprehensive liabilityinsurance policy. At the lower Court,Lombard was found to be liableunder its insurance policy. [SeeCondo Cases Across Canada, Part18, May 2007.]

Lombard appealed to the OntarioCourt of Appeal. The Appeal wasdismissed. The Court of Appeal heldthat the foundation damage wasdamage to “third party property”,rather than damage to the contrac-tor’s “own work”. The Court ofAppeal also concluded that the dam-age resulted from an “occurrence”under the terms of the policy. TheCourt of Appeal accordingly heldthat the damage was covered byLombard’s policy.

MANITOBA CASEWinnipeg Condominium No. 30 v.The Conserver Group Inc. (Manitoba Court of Appeal)(February 15, 2008)

Limitation period extended

The condominium corporation’sapplication for leave to commence anaction after the expiry of a limitationperiod was dismissed by the lowerCourt. The condominium corporationappealed to the Manitoba Court ofAppeal, and was successful onappeal.

The condominium corporationsought leave to commence a CourtClaim in relation to damages to itsheating and cooling system. The con-dominium corporation alleged that

the damages were the result of mis-takes made by the engineering firmthat provided mechanical design ser-vices and by the contracting firm thatperformed the actual remedial workto the heating and cooling system.The Manitoba Court of Appealagreed that the condominium corpo-

ration did not have “knowledge ofmaterial facts of a decisive charac-ter” upon which to base the actionuntil less than twelve months prior tothe condominium corporation’s appli-cation. The corporation was accord-ingly granted leave to commence theclaim.

OTHER ALBERTACASESCondominium Plan 7722911 v.Marnel (Alberta Court of Queen’sBench) (March 25, 2008)

Owner ordered to remove windowtinting

The east side of the condominiumbuilding is subject to excessive heatgenerated by sunlight. The respon-dent owner accordingly suggestedthat the Board consider coating thewindows of the condominium with afilm as a solution to this problem. TheBoard did not decide to coat all win-

dows, but decided to allow therespondent to install a clear film onthe east windows of her unit, at herexpense. The respondent then askedthat the Board approve a “SolarBronze film”, which is slightly darkerand bronze-coloured, because “theheat generated by the sun would becut by a much greater degree” bysuch tinted film (as opposed to clearfilm). The Board refused the requestfor bronze-tinted film on the groundsthat the tinted film would compro-mise the external visual integrity ofthe building. The respondent never-theless arranged for the installationof the Solar Bronze film, because theinstallation firm told her that the filmcould be removed if necessary.

The Court said that the respondent’sactions contravened the corpora-tion’s By-laws, which prohibited anyalterations to the exterior appearanceof the building. The respondent wasordered to remove the bronze-tintedfilm.

934859 Alberta Inc. v. CondominiumCorporation No. 0312180 (Court ofQueen’s Bench of Alberta) (October24, 2007)

Condominium corporation had not acted unfairly. Condominium corporation successful on appeal

The lower Court (Master) had deter-mined that the condominium corpo-ration had failed to allocate expensesfairly [see Condo Cases AcrossCanada, Part 16, November 2006].The condominium corporationappealed the Master’s order, andwas successful on appeal. Theappeal judge concluded as follows:

The east side of the condominium building issubject to excessive heat

generated by sunlight.


• “I note that the hearing before meis a de novo hearing. The evidenceon which the learned Master reliedfor his decision was, in my view,incomplete and in respect of somematerial and important aspectsincorrect. Substantially more infor-mation and evidence has beenplaced before me. As well, the sub-missions of Condo Corp. were moreexpansive and not substantially limit-ed to a jurisdictional question.”

• “A review of the cases submittedindicates that a Court should deferto elected boards as a matter of gen-eral application… a Court shouldnot lightly interfere in the decision ofthe democratically elected board ofdirectors, acting within its jurisdic-tion, and substitute its opinion aboutthe propriety of the board of direc-tor’s opinion unless the board’sdecision is clearly oppressive, unrea-sonable and contrary to legislation.”

• “… the evidence does not establishor demonstrate that there has beenany improper conduct on the part ofCondo Corp. or the board of direc-tors. In my view neither the CondoCorp. nor the board of directors haveunfairly disregarded the interests of934859. Nor have they conductedthe business affairs or exercisedpowers in a manner that was oppres-sive or unfairly prejudicial to 934859or to the other first floor owners. Inthe result, the application of CondoCorp. is granted and the order of thelearned Master is set aside.”

B.C. CASESSidhu v. Owners Strata PlanVR1886 (Supreme Court of BritishColumbia) (January 24, 2008)

Modifications not approved by stratacorporation

The plaintiff operated a dry-cleaningbusiness out of three of the stratalots. He had made various renova-tions (including modifications tocommon property) which he said hadbeen authorized by the strata coun-cil. The strata corporation said that ithad never given more than agree-ment in principle and that final agree-ment was subject to review of all

drawings and permits for the pro-posed work.

The plaintiff sued for an injunction toprevent the strata corporation fromwithdrawing its approval, or alterna-tively for damages resulting fromsuch withdrawal.

The Court found in favour of the stra-ta corporation. The Court agreed thatthe modifications were never finallyapproved. The Court also noted thatsome of the modifications violatedthe by-laws of the strata corporationand the standard by-laws of theStrata Property Act.

The Court accordingly made variousorders for a detailed disclosure andreview of the modifications and forapproval and/or reversal of the modi-fications. The Court also madeorders for recovery of costs incurredby the strata corporation, but didorder a reduction of fines imposed bythe strata corporation.

Shaw Cablesystems Limited v.Concord Pacific Group Inc. and Novus Entertainment Inc.(Supreme Court of BritishColumbia) (August 9, 2007)

Statutory easements in favour ofstrata lot owners do not entitle owners to install new services

Shaw challenged Concord’s policyof refusing to allow Shaw to installtelecommunications infrastructure instrata properties developed byConcord. Shaw relied upon thestatutory easements “through thecommon property” in favour of eachstrata lot owner contained in Section69(1)(b) of the Strata Property Act.

The Court said that Section 69(1)(b)simply confirms that each strata lothas a right to benefit from the ser-vices selected by the strata corpora-tion, but not a right to arrange forinstallation of new facilities throughthe common property.

Smith v. The Owners, Strata PlanVIS4673

Court considers validity of By-law reducing assessment forunimproved strata lotsWhile the developer owned the bulk

of the strata lots, the strata corpora-tion passed a By-law which purport-ed to grant a 50% reduction of thesemi-annual assessment to anyowner, including the developer, “thatis the registered owner of three (3) ormore strata lots that have unim-proved private yard areas.” This By-law remained in effect for severalyears, resulting in estimated reduc-tions of strata fees (for certain own-ers – including the developer) total-ing approximately $60,000.

The petitioners, being the owners ofsome of the strata lots, sought anorder that the By-law be declaredinvalid and that the strata council bedirected to collect the “lost” fees.

About two weeks following the filingof the petition, at the corporation’s8th Annual General Meeting, amotion rescinding the By-law wascarried. But, at the same meeting, amotion “that council be directed topursue the alleged issue of under-paid strata fees” was defeated.

The Court offered the non-bindingopinion that the By-law was voidbecause it contravened both the for-mer Condominium Act and theStrata Property Act. The Court said,however, that the issue of the validityof the By-law should not be decidedby the Court, because the issue ismoot. The By-law had been rescind-ed. Furthermore, the owners in ageneral meeting had voted not toseek recovery of the lost strata fees,and “no evidence was presented toshow that the attitude of the majorityof the owners has changed sincethat meeting”. The Court accordinglyheld that “the decision of the Courtwill not have the effect of resolvingsome controversy which affects ormay affect the rights of the parties”.

James Davidson, LL.B., ACCI,FCCI, Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP,Ottawa, ON


chapter CHATTE R

The Toronto and Area CCI Chapter had an extremely busyspring session – holding numerous courses and other events.All three levels of CCI courses – the Condo 101, Basic andAdvanced Course were offered in the spring and attendance atall three course offerings was strong. Our thanks and apprecia-tion is extended to the numerous volunteer instructors partici-pating in these courses.

A session on Asbestos Management Plans was arranged byCCI and was presented at the 2008 Springfest show by Dr.Gina Cody and Robert Reid both from Construction Control Inc.CCI Toronto also participated as an exhibitor in the trade showarea of Springfest, where volunteers Robert Buckler, Bob Girardand Gina Cody met with many delegates who were interestedto learn more about CCI.

CCI Toronto hosted a Networking Dinner on April 12th at theNovotel Hotel in North York. The event, which drew over 40condo Presidents and Board members, offered lively discussionthe concerns, success stories and challenges of various condo-minium corporations.

The other highlight of the 2008 spring season was the CCINational semi-annual meetings and conference held this year inVancouver. The Toronto and Area Chapter was well representedwith several directors attending the educational sessions andnumerous networking opportunities the event offered. CAI, theUS counterpart to CCI also hosted a conference in the spring

of 2008 – in Orlando Florida. CCI Toronto was fortunate to sendseveral delegates who learned about the latest trends, ideas,and developments in the US condominium market.

Planning for the 12th Annual CCI-T/ACMO conference is in fullswing. Mark your calendars now for this year’s conference “OurCondominium Community - Building Better Values” taking place onFriday October 31st and Saturday November 1st, 2008. Visit theconference website at www.condoconference.ca for full details.

Lynn Morrovat, CCI Toronto and Area Chapter Administrator

To r o n t o C h a p t e r

On the Administrative side, this office has been busy; the annualmembership renewals are being received en masse at the time ofwriting. We acknowledge and appreciate the continued supportof all of our members as it has been an interesting year to say theleast. Membership in the Chapter continues to be on the rise andmany of the new condominium developments in Ottawa are join-ing up as well.

The final details related to the third Director’s Course offered dur-ing the past year are just about complete. There has been sucha demand for the Director’s Course that an extra course wasoffered to catch up with an ever growing waiting list. This year180 attendees were registered for one of the three weekendcourses offered.

This fall, the Chapter will introduce a one-day Level 100 Coursein October, followed by a two-day Level 200 weekend course inNovember.

The Chapter’s Annual General Meeting is scheduled forSaturday, October 25th.

And, the Chapter Office has moved. After nearly six years work-ing out of my home, it became necessary because of the growthof the Chapter to move locations. The move does not affect themailing address as the mail will continue to go to the post officebox. It also does not affect the telephone/fax numbers or the e-mail address.

Liz Dowd, Administrator, CCI Ottawa Chapter

O t t a w a C h a p t e r


As spring moves toward summer CCI Nova Scotia is keepingup with ongoing events. As I write this, we are getting ready toattend one of the ‘open forum’ sessions on Municipal TaxReform that the Halifax Regional Municipality is holding.Reform is in the air and I’m hopeful that any changes that affectthe way condominium corporations are taxed will quicklyspread to other communities in Nova Scotia. If what the taxreform committee recommends comes to pass then condo cor-porations in the municipality of Halifax will be taxed at 60% ofthe rate for single family homes. In fact the municipality is goingto treat them the same as multiple unit rental buildings, a bigimprovement over the current practice.

On April 19 CM200 was presented with Pat Cassidy onceagain taking the lead with Board members, vice-president DanDan Galetti (property manager with Merit) and Tony Hall (ofPodium Property Management) ably presenting ably presentingthe material in an interesting and enjoyable way. Our venue forthis seminar was one of the Executive boardrooms in the Sobeybuilding at St Mary’s University with a buffet luncheon con-tributing to a wonderful day.

On May the 6th the final seminar in the 07-08 year was con-ducted as an evening session in the auditorium of Nova ScotiaAssociation of Realtors at Scarfe Court when Pat Cassidy con-ducted ‘Human Rights in Your Condo Corp’. This interesting

and eye opening talk was based on the National Symposium onHuman Rights held in Toronto last November and was verymuch enjoyed by the audience.

We’ve set the date for our Annual Meeting in September andare preparing our summer newsletter for publication. With thebreak from meetings coming up after our June board meeting,preparations for nominations to the board will be on our mindas we look to our membership to select some fresh faces andenthusiasm to add to the mix. It’s been an interesting and infor-mative year and everyone has worked so hard to accomplishour goals. What a great team we have!

Norma Cameron, President, CCI Nova Scotia Chapter

N o v a S c o t i a C h a p t e r

chapter CHATTE R

The summer months have finally come to the GoldenHorseshoe Chapter of the CCI. Given the winter we all sharedit was a welcomed surprise to finally watch the spring snowmelt into the summer sun. Despite the well earned sunny days,the Golden Horseshoe Chapter has been very active, and hasmany exciting plans ahead. The Level 100 courses were heldon April 5th, 2008, in Kitchener and in Burlington on April 12th,2008. Both sites enjoyed strong attendance and the chapter is deeply appreciative to the guest speakers that provided their time. Not to be forgotten was Mark Shedden’s patenteddiagrams, and complicated multi-page hand drawn diagrams,which were enjoyed by all. Looking forward, the GoldenHorseshoe Chapter will be having its annual general meetingon September 18th, 2008 at the Royal Botanical Gardens.Following the annual general meeting, the chapter is delightedto be hosting a legal forum entitled “Staying out of Court”.Registration and details will be posted on our website soon at:www.ghcci.org. The Level 200 programs shall be held inKitchener and in Burlington both on October 18th & 25th,2008. Any members wishing to propose a topic or speak ateither are welcome to submit their ideas. Finally the chapter is

working proactively with the City of Burlington to review themunicipal taxation of condominiums. Led by CCI President KimCoulter, the City of Burlington staff are currently considering afull financial review for Council’s consideration. Great work Kim!

More to follow and enjoy the warmer weather.

Robert Mullin, GHC Board of Directors, Golden Horseshoe Chapter

G o l d e n H o r s e s h o e C h a p t e r


chapter CHATTE R

M a n i t o b a C h a p t e r

It has been a busy spring for the Manitoba Chapter. Severalmembers of the Manitoba Chapter travelled to Brandon,Manitoba’s second largest city, and hosted a one day sympo-sium entitled “The Condominium Director’s Overview”. Thesymposium was a well attended, a testimony to the growingcondominium community in Brandon, Manitoba. In other edu-cation news, our education committee remains hard at workand hosting a series “Lunch and Learn” seminars throughoutthe year. As well, the Manitoba Chapter continues to distributeit’s newly published “Condominium Guide Book” a 32 pageGuide Book aimed at giving basic information about condo-miniums to unit owners and purchasers of condominiums.

Our legislative committee continues to work with the ProvincialGovernment towards changes to the Condominium Act. Whilecomprehensive changes are a ways off still, we are hopeful thatthe spring session of the legislature will see changes withrespect to warranties and phasing.

Our newsletter committee remains hard at work and continuesto put out consistent quality newsletters.

Finally, the Manitoba Chapter is looking into hiring a part timeAdministrator. Thus far, in our chapter’s history, all of our oper-ations have been run by volunteers, but with the growth of ourchapter and of the condominium community in Manitoba it isbecoming more obvious that we need the services of anAdministrator. Look for exciting things to come!

Doug Forbes, President, CCI-Manitoba Chapter

W i n d s o r - E s s e x C o u n t y C h a p t e r

As we are about to come to a close for the 2007-2008 mem-bership year, our plans are already underway for an exciting2008-2009 membership year. We are scheduling more greatevents. In particular, the “911 Now What” Condo Comedy Skitwith live actors will be a most entertaining way to learn aboutcondominium living. We are also excited about our new extend-ed expert panel for our always popular “Ask the ExpertSeminar”. There will be more experts featured than ever before.The “Ask the Expert Presentation” will be combined with ourAnnual General Meeting scheduled for Wednesday evening onOctober 22, 2008. Stay tuned for more details on theseupcoming events for what is sure to be a vibrant 2008-2009membership year. We are grateful to our members for the con-tinued support and to our excellent Board of Directors for mak-ing such a successful year possible with a great year ahead.

Our 2008-2009 Membership Drive is on! Please renew yourmembership now to ensure that you receive a full year of bene-fits starting July 1, 2008. Membership has its benefits, includ-ing Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) Credits for realestate professionals. Our local website and Chapter, known tocondominium communities throughout Canada, can providelinks to your business and we would encourage you to takeadvantage of this marketing service. There are great advertisingopportunities for our business and professional members in our

Directory and Newsletter circulations, as well.

We would also like to hear your ideas for seminar topics andother issues that affect your condominium. For more information on how to become a member of the CCI Windsor-Essex County Chapter or to become more involved inour Chapter, please call 519-978-3237 or visit our website atwww.cci.ca/Windsor.

Andrea M. Thielk, BA, LLB, JD, ACCI (Law)President, CCI Windsor-Essex County Chapter


chapter CHATTE R

Newfoundland and Labrador Chapter

We wait a long time for Spring to kick in in this part of the coun-try and when it does we really get excited. Although we havenot yet experienced the “tropical” temperatures that some ofyou may have in other parts of the country, there is occasional-ly a welcome warmth in the wind. We should not be too criticalas our colder temperatures this time of year may be attributed,in part, to the beautiful icebergs that have visited our shores.This year has been especially good for iceberg watchers. I havewatched from my office window as several smaller bergs havedrifted past the Narrows of St. John’s Harbor. There have beendozens more in the bays and coves around our capital city.

Personally, I just arrived back from CCI National’s semi annualmeetings in Vancouver (another spectacular area of the coun-try). Congratulations to the Vancouver Chapter for puttingtogether a fantastic event. The wine tasting, harbor dinnercruise and Grouse Mountain dinner were great. I was alsopleased to meet so many Vancouver Chapter members anddirectors who attended the weekend Chapter seminar.

On May 28, CCI Newfoundland and Labrador held what wehope will be the first of many luncheon seminars. An excellenthot meal was served which was a hit with all of our memberswho attended. Our guest speaker was Constable Kevin Foleyof the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Constable Foleygave a great presentation on safety and security issues for con-dominium owners and directors. He discussed such things asbuilding and unit access, theft, vehicle security, identity theftand personal safety. His presentation sparked many questionsfrom our members and I think everyone took some valuableinformation from the session. He assured our members that theSt. John’s area is generally safe but that individuals should beaware of the risks that are out there and should take somecommon sense precautions.

Riding on the success of this luncheon seminar, we hope toarrange similar events in the future. We have asked our mem-bership to provide us with suggestions on seminar topics theywould like to see.

We are currently exploring the possibility of developing aChapter website with the assistance of CCI National. This is avery exciting prospect for us as it will allow us even greateraccess to our existing members and to potential new members.We will also be able to provide information and notices to ourmembers which can be accessed at their convenience.

With tips and advice from our friends in other chapters we are alsoplanning to develop our own chapter newsletter. There are manygreat CCI information articles out there that we feel would begreatly welcomed by our members. We hope that this will be yetanother way that we can serve and educate those in our chapter.

Well, with that, I will sign off. We have a lot of work to do tobring these big plans together. To all our CCI friends across thecountry, we wish you a safe and happy summer.

Geoff Penney, President, Newfoundland and Labrador Chapter

Spring at CCI North Alberta has been busy. We have beendealing with numerous changes as well as keeping up with ourschedule of courses for 2008. We now welcome Ruth Johnstonto our office. She is new to CCI business and is very enthusedto work for us. We are pleased to have her as a first impressionlook of CCI-NAC.

We have held our CM 100, 200 and 300 which were wellattended. We also held a very successful Hot Topics/LegalCases in which several of our local lawyers spoke on DisasterPlanning, Condominium Rentals, The Maintenance Gap,Arbitration vs. Litigation, Insurance Deductibles, andCondominium Regulations. We sincerely thank all of the con-tributors for their hard work.

The North Alberta Chapter covers area from Red Deer in centralAlberta to the Northern border and there has been a lot of needfor education in our outlying areas. We have now officially ven-tured out of Edmonton and just presented our first CM100 in thebooming city of Fort McMurray. It was a smaller crowd which ledto a lot of question and answer time. The next venture will be inJuly to the western side of the province at Grande Prairie wherethe CM 100 will be presented. Northern Alberta has a largecondominium market that is very much in need of CCI Educationand we look forward to expanding our education schedule on aregular basis.

Lynne Spero, President, CCI North Alberta Chapter

N o r t h A l b e r t a C h a p t e r


chapter CHATTE R

We have been pleased to offer 2 seminars over the last severalmonths, and launched our web-site – www.nscci.ca – progressin-deed. In November 2007 we had a panel format seminar on avariety of topics, and then on May 5th, 2008 we brought inDeborah Howes (former CCI National President) fromEdmonton to speak on Mediation and Arbitration DisputeResolution. We had over 200 participants to each seminar!

Part of the success of our latest seminars has been interest fromour local newspaper (Saskatoon Star Phoenix) in our mandate.They have run two cover stories in the weekend home section tocoincide with our seminars; this has sparked tremendous inter-est. As a result of this interest, we have several individualsexpressing strong interest in joining our local Chapter Board.

We expect more interest in the local Chapter and our offerings(seminars and newsletters) in the near future as the conversionboom continues here in Northern Saskatchewan. The apartmentvacancy rate is at below 1% across the City of Saskatoon, andother northern centres such as Prince Albert are seeing similar

scenarios. We have 1142 conversion units either in the marketor soon to be coming to the market. With these new condo-minium complexes we are seeing the need for education asparamount as unfortunately the flow of education is not able tokeep up with the pace of conversion.

Chetan Thakore, President, North Saskatchewan Chapter

N o r t h S a s k a t c h e w a n C h a p t e r

H u r o n i a C h a p t e r

CCI Huronia has experienced a steady year and we are lookingforward to an exciting year of growth for 2009. The condo-minium market in the Huronia area is showing no signs of slow-ing down anytime soon and our challenge is clear: “how do weachieve successful communication with all of our new neigh-bors?“ We are working on new marketing initiatives for the fall.

The last several months our board has been busy with manyinitiatives including our newsletter, our six-night director’scourse and a very successful President’s Club featuring GerryHyman, condominium lawyer and columnist for the TorontoStar. The President’s Club continues to grow with the relent-less work of Sonya Knauft and Jon Juffs. We have complet-ed a series of Risk Management Protocol seminars in the northof our region and achieved new memberships through this ini-tiative, thanks to Bob Skeaff, Huronia director.

Huronia was fortunate to have three representatives, myself asa National Director and two board members, Shari Davidsonand Bob Skeaff, at the May semi-annual conference inVancouver. The chapter workshop was particularly successful,with a wealth of information provided on growth, successfulventures, concerns and challenges from each Chapter acrossCanada. We will be using an enormous amount of this infor-mation for our growth and planning through 2008 and 2009.

Our AGM will be held upon the Serendipity Princess onSeptember 5th, at 6:30pm, leaving the dock by 7pm. We

have invited this years volunteer speakers, that have providedtheir wealth of knowledge at our courses throughout the pastyear and we will be thanking our fantastic sponsors as well.This years AGM and boat cruise will be particularly exciting aswe have booked a larger band and have already commencedadvanced registration.

The first order of business after our AGM will be our thirdannual, new board planning session, held the end ofSeptember and we will be using knowledge gained throughthis years initiatives and the semi-annual conference toincrease our membership and expand our services to ourmembers.

Michele Farley, President, CCI Huronia Chapter


chapter CHATTE R

L o n d o n & A r e a C h a p t e r

Another year gone by; it was a good year filled with excellentassistance by our Condominium Course instructors, seminar pre-senters, writers and Condominium Round Table participants. Wethank them all for their continued support and contributions to theongoing education of condominium owners and contractors.

And so, we begin planning for our 2008/2009 calendar of eventsand seminars. As always, your suggestions for Seminars andCondominium Round Table discussions are most welcome.Email them to the administrator [email protected].

A location change for our Condominium Round Table discussionsis under review. As the group is now on hiatus until September10th more information will be available at a later date. The com-mittee has put a lot of time into making this a viable forum for direc-tors of condominium corporations to meet and discuss commonissues that affect the daily operations of their condominium. Weappreciate the support of all the directors who attend to learn andshare how to deal effectively with so many issues.

Already we have interested directors from condominiums acrossthe area signing up for our annual 2-day Condominium Courseand we certainly thank them for their interest and encourage allwho are new to making decisions on behalf of owners in the con-dominium communities to participate. Deadline for registration isOctober 11th. Registration forms are available on the websitewww.cci-sw.on.ca or via an email request to the administrator.

Our year of learning was completed by our annual “There are nostupid questions!” seminar. Our sincere thanks go to BrianBovan, Michael Lamb, and Barry Scott our legal experts who covered a wide range of condominium issues, including tenantissues (whether a Condominium can prevent occupancy by

tenants or control the number or type of tenants); insuranceresponsibilities, standard unit by-laws; insurance appraisals;reserve fund studies; smoke alarms; and identifying dangerousactivities on the property; and to David Sanders who addressedthe current state of Section 132 as it relates to mediation andarbitration for condominium. As always, the Q & A that followedwas interesting and informative.

The membership renewals were forwarded to all contact personson record and we sincerely thank those who have made theirmembership renewals a priority.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, may you all have a safe andmost enjoyable summer! We look forward to seeing you at ourfuture events, to participate in any way you might choose.

Trish Kaplan, Administrator, CCI London & Area Chapter

S o u t h S a s k a t c h e w a n C h a p t e r

I write to you from Regina, only a day after getting home fromVancouver and the 2008 Spring Conference. VancouverChapter did an excellent job and I had a really good time inVancouver. There is so much to see and do there.

South Saskatchewan's seminar series has wound up for theyear. Our last seminar was on gardening in limited spaces - onbalconies and in small back yards, as so many condo ownersmust deal with.

Our annual fall conference will be held on Saturday, October 4at Queensbury Downs at Ipsco Place, Regina. Janice Pynn ofCCI Toronto will be speaking on her experiences as a propertymanager in Canada's largest condominium market. WithRegina's booming economy and aggressive growth at themoment, peeking at Toronto from afar may give us a taste of thefuture of our condominium market (even if the scale does notquite ramp up to Toronto's!).

We will have the speaker schedule fully fleshed out soon.

Have a great summer!

Jim MacKenzie, President, CCI South Saskatchewan Chapter


chapter CHATTE R

Mark Your Calendars Now!2008 CCI/ACMO ConferenceOctober 31 - November 1

“Our Condominium Community– Building Better Values”

Va n c o u v e r C h a p t e r

Well, a lot has happened since our last edition of ChapterChatter! As you know, CCI Vancouver hosted the May 2008CCI Spring Conference. What took over a year of planning andorganization was all over in just over 3 action-packed and fun-filled days (and nights!). On Wednesday, May 21, our chapterwelcomed our guests and delegates to a wine-tasting hostedby one of our chapter members, BFL Canada. MartaChiavacci, who happened to have been awarded Sommelier ofthe Year in Italy for 2007, wowed us with her knowledge andexpertise while we sampled some of B.C.’s finest wines! I thinkit’s safe to say that a good time was had by all.

While the CCI National Board conducted its board and com-mittee meetings, CCI Vancouver was putting the finishingtouches on the harbour dinner cruise planned for May 22.About 3 hours before we were ready to “set sail”, the sun,which had been alluding us for much of the day, made anappearance and stayed with us as we cruised east downBurrard Inlet and into Indian Arm. Approximately 87 guests par-ticipated in the “3 hour cruise” and once again, by all accounts,everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the weather, the viewsand the socializing.

On Friday night, 75 + guests enjoyed the views and thescenery from atop Grouse Mountain. While the weather wasnot as glorious as it was during the harbour dinner cruise, therewas plenty to see and do both before and after feasting on agourmet meal served at the “Peak of Vancouver”.

On Saturday, May 24, CCI Vancouver hosted a three-part sem-inar which was attended by over 70 guests. Mike Van Dusenand Kevin Grasty of Halsall engineers educated and intriguedus with their knowledge and advice regarding buildingenvelopes and building maintenance. The podium was thenturned over to Jim MacKenzie, a National board member andone of our own members, Paul Duchaine of BFL Canada, whoproceeded to tell us the importance of knowing why we needinsurance, who to talk to in order to get the proper insurancecoverage and what to do in order to insure a strata corporationhas proper insurance coverage. A sit down lunch followed theirpresentation and while members of the audience finished offthe last of their lunch, a 5 person legal panel comprised ofShawn Smith, a CCI Vancouver member, Ron Danks fromHamilton, Don Kramer from Edmonton, Geoffrey Penney fromSt.John’s, Nfld. and Rob Giesbrecht from Manitoba regaled uswith funny and not so funny legal cases and anecdotes for thebetter part of an hour!

CCI Vancouver has a small but active board of directors. It tooka lot of hard work and planning to host the May 2008 CCImeeting but we did it! Thank you to Christina Garson, JimAllison and Louis Cotsiris.

Our board would like to thank each and every one of our out oftown guests who traveled to Vancouver for our event. Wewould also like to thank all of our sponsors, who are listedbelow, for their financial and moral support! Without their sup-port, the event would not have been a success.

Thanks to: CCI Toronto and Area, CCI North Alberta, CCIGolden Horseshoe, CCI National, Home Owner ProtectionOffice, Halsall Associates, Access Law Group, BFL Canada,Phoenix Restoration, Berris Mangan Accountants and SuncorpValuations.

In our “spare” time, our chapter has been diligently workingtoward implementing a marketing program aimed at growingour chapter and branding our chapter as the “Voice ofCondominium” in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. We areconfident that this program will greatly assist the growth andvitality of our chapter!

Last but certainly not least, we would like to give a big thanksto Taylor Enterprises and in particular, Alison Nash and DianeGaunt for all their hard work behind the scenes with the eventregistration and coordination! Thanks Alison and Diane!

Jamie Bleay, LL.B., President, CCI Vancouver Chapter

THE VOICE OF CONDOMINIUM NATIONAL EDITION … VOICE OF CONDOMINIUM ... Larry Holmes, RCM, ACCI, CIM,...

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